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How Were You 'Bit by the Bug' of Engineering & Technology?

What's the Gift that Led You to Give Back?

 

Gift us the story of your love for engineering & technology!

 

Every great love affair starts somewhere.  Did the sparks fly the moment of your first encounter with anything related to engineering or technology?image

 

Maybe you found it dull and boring at first? Did your mind go numb as you listened to concepts too complicated to understand and numbers too overwhelming to compute? Did your love blossom slowly over time, as you discovered layer upon layer of depth, becoming arrested by incomprehensible beauty, as you longingly gazed into the abyss of a perfect alignment of mathematical symmetry and artistic harmony?

 

Did it begin with an exchange of gifts?  Engineering and technology, as you know, offers many tantalizing gifts. Did you have a moment together?  A moment that would change the rest of your life forever!

 

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The end of the year is a time for giving and reflection. Gifts are exchanged, resolutions are made, and you look back on the past. You may even reach further and think of the pivotal moments that led you in the current direction of your life.

 

Whether its the gift of an experience, the gift of a piece of hardware or software, the gift of an idea or a person who inspired you, think of a gift that influenced you to pursue engineering & technology.

 

Here are some examples of the gifts that led others to give back:

 

The Gift of Wonder

 

Steve Wozniak, widely credited as the inventor of the Personal Computer, gave an interview where he credits a journal he found in a hall closet for his interest in engineering and technology: "...I found a journal in a hall closet with descriptions of binary numbering, logic gates and storage devices....When I discovered a 9-year old could understand this stuff I knew it would be my passion forever."image

 

An engineer may not get or even want attention for their accomplishments, its their job, to make things work even if it means pushing technology as far as it goes, making the seemingly impossible, possible. A good deal of selflessness is required in engineering, which in its way makes it sound a lot like giving.  For an engineer like Wozniak, it opened up a world of wonder for him that would change the world forever!

 

"I found a journal in a hall closet with descriptions of binary numbering, logic gates and storage devices....When I discovered a 9-year old could understand this stuff I knew it would be my passion forever."

 

The Gift of the Whole Brain

 

Many of the skills required to be a good engineer are well known and have been talked about a lot.  A lot of formal training in math and science is required to develop the rational thinking and logic required to solve real world problems. Not only are you expected to solve complex problems, you are asked to implement solutions in cost effective and practical ways.This brings us to another prized trait in engineers; the ability to think creatively. The ability to think big and use your imagination is highly valued, especially when it comes to solving complicated problems that may involve monetary or feasibility concerns. Anyone that has ever worked in tech knows you have to work within the constraints of the technology of the given time and even a perfect product will be obsolete before you know it.image

 

Although mostly known as one of the great artist, there's perhaps no better exemplier what can be accomplished in engineering using a whole-brain approach than Leonardo Di Vinci: "To develop a complete mind: study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else."  In addition to being an accomplished architectural engineer, Da Vinci's investigation of human anatomy helped lay the early foundation of the biomedical engineering field.image

 

"To develop a complete mind: study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else."

 

 

The Gift of Diversity

 

In a world ruled by seemingly arbitrary lines. Engineering and technology follow the laws of physics and if you can master those laws and bend technology to your will, you find it's the product of your work that matters and this gives opportunity to people from diverse backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.  The appeal of technology and engineering for people in all corners of the world is that regardless of your gender, race, family, background, or social status, your contribution has value because of where you come from. That is why some of the great technology companies and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) educators are at the forefront of recognizing the need to promote a diverse and inclusive environment.image

 

Engineers and technologists recognize the value diversity brings to the work they are able to accomplish, if you are going to invent and innovate solutions that solve the needs of everyone you're only going to succeed by bringing in diverse perspectives. Education in engineering is now focused on being more diverse because, as explained in an article about the changing face of engineering education, that drives innovation.

 

The Gift of Curiosity

 

Once you understand the mathematical and mechanistic way everything works you open doors, that lead you to other doors, that lead to still more doors. Engineers use quantitative analysis to understand and model the world around them. They witness the interplay between science and technology, how science advances technology, and vice versa. In a profile on Live Science, Maurizio Porfiri, who holds a PH.D. in engineering mechanics credits the literature he read growing up for the curiosity needed to excel in engineering: "Being creative and being curious is more important than being the smartest or best at equations if you want to be a great engineer or researcher."image

 

Porfiri was included in Popular Science's Brilliant 10 in 2012, an elite group of scientists under 40 who stands to dramatically impact their field, despite being a self-described "okay student" as well as the recipient of the 2008 NSF Career Award.  In engineering and technology, curiosity is what drives you to learn new programming languages, experiment with new systems, and come up with novel solutions to solve problems.

 

 

"Being creative and being curious is more important than being the smartest or best at equations if you want to be a great engineer or researcher."

 

The Gift of a Better Tomorrow

 

There are many pressing needs in the world in fields like technology including energy, sustainability, transportation, education, healthcare, food, and the environment. While a goal of many disciplines in science is to understand reality, the ultimate goal of engineering and technology is to create a better tomorrow that leaves the world a better a place.image

 

The work of engineers is everywhere.  In hospitals and clinics there is manufacturing pharmaceuticals, designing intravenous infusion pumps, programming electronic medical records. Biomedical engineers are as much a part of patient care as nurses and physicians. Meanwhile, mechanical engineers contribute to transportation; environmental engineers contribute to sustainability and energy; and electrical engineers contribute to communications.

 

The Gift of Generosity

 

Perhaps the greatest gift of engineering and technology is that it can not only make life more comfortable for everyone, but it can also save lives. An understanding of engineering and technology can be used to serve the public and address global challenges by putting you in a position to help others using your skills.  Environmental Engineer Lilia Abron, founder of Peer Consultants and Peer Africa, credits the book Silent Sprint by Rachel Carson, as the inspiration behind her sanitary engineering vocation.image

 

Lilia Abron runs a program that unifies energy efficiency and sustainable housing construction, along with economic development, to create sustainable human settlements.  She tells her alumni bulletin: "It bothered me to see people living without any power to change their lives, and government funds being wasted by construction companies just trying to make money. I told my business partner, 'I know how to solve this.'" The book Silent Spring, first published in 1962, is also the inspiration for the environmental movement that led to the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency).image

 

"It bothered me to see people living without any power to change their lives, and government funds being wasted by construction companies just trying to make money. I told my business partner, 'I know how to solve this.'"

 

The Gift that Kept On Giving

 

There's perhaps no better way to succeed in life than to love what you do because then you'll never you'll never "work" a day in your life. Educators are finding that key to developing children's interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) may lie in making STEM applicable to everyday life, making it more interesting and hands on, and emphasizing the process over results. If you developed a love for Science, Technology, and Math you could probably point to examples in your life that fall into one of those categories.  It could be a HEATH kit you received when you were a child, your first computer, working with your Dad in the garage, a science fair, or any number of experiences that you can point to as having influenced your love for engineering or technology.

 

You've heard from others.  Now, tell us what sparked YOUR interest in Engineering or Technology!  Was it a gift you received?  What was the gift?  Do you remember how old you were when the moment happened!  Do you remember where you were when it happened?  Tell us what it means to you now. Everyone has to start from somewhere, with that "eureka" moment. Were you working one day and suddenly realized, engineering and technology is where you want to spend the rest of your life.  Engineering and technology are definitely a worthwhile life-long companions. Others have always known they wanted to be with engineering and technology. What's your story?

 

Love at First Bite?  Tell Us How Your Love Affair with Engineering or Technology Began!

 

Love is a gift (I'm reliably informed by every rom com movie ever made). So we want to lavish technology gifts upon you, due to your love of technology (recipients of the freebies will be selected on the quality of their storytelling chops)!

Not only that, but we'll give you something to pass along to a techno-noobie to spread your love of electronics and inspire the next generation of engineers, like ripples in a solder bath.

 

Here's how to join in:

  • Register for free here at element14.com, or log in if you're already registered.
  • Tell the story of what got you hooked on electronics and tech in the comments below, leaving no lyric unwaxed!
  • Make sure your postal address and phone number are filled out in your element14 profile (if it's not, we can't send you anything even if we wanted to!). Click your name at the very top of the screen to open the  drop-down menu, followed by "Edit Profile + Privacy", and fill in the details so you're eligible for freebies.
    • PRIVACY NOTE: Click your name at the very top of the scree to open the  drop-down menu, followed by "Edit Profile + Privacy", go to the "Privacy" tab, and change the relevant options to "Yourself" so that your postal address and phone number aren't publicly visible.
  • This promotion only runs until 20th January, 2017, or until we run out of hot tech swag, so tell us your stories now!

  • My love electronics began at the age of ten.

     

     

    My grandfather owned a motor-court and store in Bakersfield, California and in 1956 he took me into a back room and uncovered a large slot-machine in a beautiful wooden cabinet. Slot machines were (and probably still are) highly illegal in California, and having one in storage was making him nervous. He gave it to me with the condition that I would completely dismantle it.

     

    I eventually had it dismantled. It has all kinds of lights, bells, relays and electronic parts. I then began to study each part and figure out what they did, the transformers, rectifiers, capacitors, etc. I was hooked.

     

    Now, at 70, still hooked. KM4VKY

  • in reply to silicaphysics

    You and I have a lot in common.

     

    You might find my recent research into a new atomic model very interesting.

     

    Though you will find my approach much different from the conventional thinking.

     


    DAB

  • you guys made my week with the package ill be sending pictures of the person i give the code bug too. thanks too you guys wen i can ill also have one other gift too give out sence the upgrade on the raspberry pi 3 b i reseved from your package.

  • It would be difficult, if not impossible, to pin down a single moment, gift or experience that sucked me into the abyss of engineering. It could be chalked up to genetics (Dad was a EE) but I think that it wa more nurture than nature.

     

    My father had his faults but engaging his sons with his passion for all things man made was not one of them. My earliest memory of this is probably the crystal radio we put together out of his junk drawer one freezing winter day in Dallas, around 1962 or 1963 when I was just four or five years old. It was fascinating but I was more interested in bull frogs at the time. Still, it has stuck with me all these years so it was clearly a seminal event. My father introduced me to lasers around age 7 or 8, with a HeNe and my Mom's engagement ring. He took me to lectures by Townes and bought me a subscription to Scientific American -- I maintain one to this day.

     

    Dad didn't hire repairmen -- plumbers, and the like -- or take his lawnmower or the family car to a mechanic; he always did things himself, even if it meant renting a lawn mower while his was down waiting on for a carburetor rebuild kit. I was initially drafted as tool hander but the level of responsibility Dad gave me grew exponentially in the fourth grade, after I retrieved his 5 HP Briggs and Stratton aluminum case from the alley where he had discarded it and put it on an old Tote Goat frame. I'd bought an undersize push rod and bearing at the local lawnmower shop and polished the crank journal by hand over several nights in front of the TV, with emery papers from Sears. After that I had access to just about any of his tools I needed from oscilloscopes to signal generators to torque wrenches. Of course, it also meant I was the son chosen to get up on the roof with him, guiding a stinky plumber's snake into the perpetually slow kitchen drain vent, but I could build lasers described in the Amature Scientist column of Scientific American and calculators on his breadboarding equipment. Heathkit became my BestBuy.

     

    At 14 I bought a rolled over Carman Guilla and proceeded to build a VW powered sandrail. My 16th birthday present was a trip to DMV to get my license and to register the rebuild as street legal fare. 40 HP became 75+ over the next couple of years, with the advancement in performance broken by my enlistment in the Air Force. Radar, rawinsonde, and other ancient weather equipment were my bread and butter for a while, but when I was discharged and went to college, it was a bull frogs' call that lured me there. Microbiology was my new love, but my BS qualified me to wash dishes and not much else. I had all but one course for a BS in chemistry as well, and when I discovered that I'd graduated too early had failed to recognize that I needed to actually APPLY for grad school in microbiology, the chemistry department took me in without a question.

     

    It was in pursuit of my Ph.D. in analytical chemistry where the engineering bug again took hold again, and it's grip proved unbreakable this time. My research advisor taught part of a course in instrumental analysis as a tale of intrigue that truly fascinated me: a battle between Beckman and Cary for supremacy in UV-visible spectrometer performance circa the '40s and '50s. I have been in optics pretty much ever since, starting in fiber optics, followed by lasers, and on my own since 1991 designing and building mostly laser surgical instruments, with a bit of analytical instrumentation on the side: 20 patents and counting. It's no crystal radio, but I enjoy almost every single day.

  • in reply to rsc

    So many inspirations. Have you any photos? image

  • My interest in electronics started from something as small as impressing my friends by switching on a small LED with a simple switch when I was 7. The look on their faces gave me a sense of achievement. Fast forward 8 years, and I made a radio for a school exhibition. It was because of the radio that my crush thought I was smart. I remember the shine in her eyes as she looked at the project (and me) and my friends remember the shine in my eyes as I looked at her.  Although the waves of limerence didn't last long, it was at that moment in time that I knew I had to pursue Electronics.

    A lot of Years have passed since, and electronics is now a passion because it is a necessary, omnipresent technology, that can possibly attract my crush, but definitely change the world continuously.

  • My love of technology and computers started back in early 1984.  It was a few months before my 12th birthday, and my parents purchased a Commodore 64 computer complete with a basic (pun intended) computer book (Creepy Computer Games: https://archive.org/details/Creepy_Computer_Games_1983_Usborne_Publishing ) and a tape drive....I started tinkering around with programming, and BAM! they didn't know what they had done...bwahahaha!!  They had created a "monster" who loved computers and similar stuff haha.

     

    Since then I have loved computers, programming and electronics...not that I have done any electronics for a few years now though.

    At college (1989 - 1990) I designed and created a PCB that allowed a motor to be controlled in both forward and reverse directions using relays to switch the flow of current.  I also created a numeric keypad using switches and diodes, etc. for my Commodore 64 computer that connected to the userport.

     

    My first full time job (1991 - 1994 was as a trainee Biomedical Technician (fixing machines that went ping lol) at a hospital, and my longest software/electronics job was at an Electronics Design Automation company (1999 - 2012).  I still want to do electronics, but just don't have the money or time, but I do like looking at other people's projects, the Ben Heck show, and similar things.  I do computer programming as a hobby image

  • As a small boy - may be 6 or 7, I got up early one sunday morning and found a television that my father was repairing on his work bench with the back still off. I thought I would 'help' and  set about the task with enthusiasm! turning his AVO8 to volts and prodding the insides of the T.V. there was a loud bang and lots of smoke! slightly shell shocked, I was still staring at the aftermath when my father appeared not looking very happy! for the remainder of the morning I sat with him whilst he fault found and I had to replace the now defunct components. The sense of satisfaction when it was completed was amazing, to see it burst back into life with full sound and picture, it was then that he informed me that he had in fact completed the repair the previous evening but just hadn't replaced the back.

    From then on I was hooked, I started buying Everyday Electronics and set about building just about every project (money permitting) in each magazine, learning along the way.

    At the age of 17 I was accepted as an apprentice with Radio Rentals and completed my 4 year apprenticeship. Some ten years after this I then attended University of Central Lancashire on a B.Eng course in Computing and Electronics.

    Following on, I started my own Computer consultancy business and have now retired to Spain, although still with an avid interest in electronics.

  • It was year 1984, On my birthdate my father gave me a DIY microphone preamp kit. It was the first time when I took an electronic component in my hands. That was the moment. Now I still work in electronics repairing Inverter Welding Machines.

  • In about 1963 my teacher took a group of us who had finished the years math curriculum early and taught us binary numbers and math. Fascinating, but no obvious purpose. In 1970 I was studying physics at university but was forced to stop playing soccer following an injury, I started building lighting controllers for rock concerts as a hobby and discovered I liked electronics. I also studied the philosophy and history of science, probably the most important 'gift' from university. In 1973 the chief engineer at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences decided I had something and offered me a job. For the next 25 years I designed, built, programmed and breathed digital technology. I designed and built my own computer which could emulate several of the microcomputers of the day such as the Altair and  Cromemco. At one stage I was so obsessed with technology I was only sleeping about 4 hours per night. Fortunately I discovered another obsession - windsurfing, and managed to lead a balanced life since, but I regard myself as being exceptionally lucky to have caught and surfed the digital wave over my whole career. Still riding! I always remember the opportunity that engineer gave me and have tried to do the same for those that have come behind me.